Book Review: Home Theater For Everyone: A Practical Guide ..

Archived from groups: rec.audio.misc,rec.audio.tech (More info?)

A mixed bag of good information and tommyrot


Much of the information in this book is good, but a couple of issues
need to be addressed. Tomlinson Holman, a good engineer, is the man
behind both the THX professional cinema house certification and the
Home THX certification program for home theater components. I have a
substantial issue with, particularly, the latter because it consists
of a secret set of parameters, which are divulged only to licensees
under nondisclosure. Because the requirements are themselves secret,
how can anyone judge their validity, or the comparative value of the
certification?

Mr. Harley, on the other hand, is no engineer at all, nor even a
hands-on amateur, but a promoter. He combines occasionally astute
observations with technical nonsense, so that even when his
conclusions appear to make sense you have no idea how he got there.
Simply put, he often either doesn't know what he's talking about, or
he does and is simply writing what equipment vendors and the gullible
want said.